Thinking seriously about retirement...

Zanne and I are moving closer to a decision to retire me from the Lab. I love the idea of leaving all the stress behind, but it's hard to walk away from the money. Still, with the help of our financial advisor, it looks like we can easily do it. The looming question is whether to take social security now or wait. There are major advantages and disadvantages either way. We have picked a tentative date: March 10, 2023. We'll see.

Playing Midway Solitaire on one table. Just got this one, and, seeing as it is a title from Decision Games, the rules are a bit wonky. Need to clarify a few things, but making my way through the first game. So far, the Japanese have led off with two operations toward my base in the Aleutians. The first one was bloodless. The second is underway. Interesting game that pits the player (the US) against the system (Japs). The US side has few resources and lots to defend, resulting in some risky decision making.

On my main table, I'm playing the old favorite, Mage Knight. Simply a fantastic game. A real "gamer's game"--clean but complex rules, lots of hard decisions, and kind of puzzly, because you have to try to get the most out of your hand each turn. Mucho fun.

Teaching Zechariah on zoom on Sunday nights, and really enjoying it. My favorite book of the Bible, called "the Revelation of the Old Testament". There is so much here in this book that you really don't get anywhere else. My problem is figuring out how to teach it well. I think that sometimes the students come short of understanding the profound significance of some of this book--the crowning of Joshua, the announcement of the Branch, the woman in the basket, etc. 

Would love to do a week at Ocean City in September, but haven't convinced Zanne yet. She's still intimidated about travel from our last venture into the Pacific Northwest, where we both caught COVID!

 Burncycle    

I inadvertently finished my game of "White Tribe" by losing on turn 3 (1968). I was pursuing a liberal vector as head of state, in order to keep the terror level low. In 1968, the Land Tenure bill came up in the legislature. The gist of it was to empower whites to hold onto the land at the expense of blacks. I decided to abandon the bill. The Rhodesian Front Party lost a lot of popularity, and my move force a new election...which I lost. In retrospect I did not fully appreciate the political danger of moving too fast toward the left.

Anyway, that cleared the table for my latest acquisition--Burncycle. A dystopian game in which you play the side of the robots fighting for survival against the evil human corporations trying to destroy you. Looks to be a very complex game. I worked my way through the tutorial, but I have this feeling there are a lot of little rules that I will forget when I play alone. We'll see. Basically, you organize a raid into a  corporation building to complete a mission. It's a Chip Theory Game, which means it's expensive and over-produced, like Too Many Bones. Looks good on the table. 

Suzanne and I are empty-nesters now, and we love it! Really enjoy the privacy, but it is fun when the Lat kids/spouses come over to visit. We are just about done climbing out of our post-travel doldrums, and I will commence a hard training cycle on Monday.

Over the weekend I visited Bev/Craig/Asher/Micah/Grayce and Molly/Austin/Jace...and new baby girl on the way! Also visited with Sam and his girlfriend Ashley--nice girl. Jace was hilarious, and we got a great pic of him on my shoulders. Because it's a "live picture", you can view it as a video, and Jace is dancing. So cute. We ate some good food, had lots of conversations with the grandkids. We had a swimming party at Bev's house. Lots of fun. Even wandered into a political discussion with my kids, who are all pro-Trumpers! How did this happen? Where did I go wrong!?!?

Meanwhile, we continue to watch the January 6th hearings and wonder if anything will come of them. 

The SCOTUS decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has unleashed a firestorm of protest, both on the streets and in the media/social media. I discovered the depth of the hatred and violence of the pro-choice crowd. I always miscalculate and expect that they will engage in reasonable discourse. Instead, educated people descend immediately into name-calling and Christian-bashing. Ugh.

Hello, Blog! It's been awhile.

 As a consequence of a Facebook flamewar, someone I don't know was sneaking on me and announced with contempt that "Leonhard has a religious blog!" (She went on to demonstrate what a jerk I am, a position with which I, of course, completely agree.)

I immediately thought:  "He has a blog?!?" Oh, yeah! I forgot about that! 

Haven't posted on this for over a decade! Time to restart. Tonight's subject:  what you missed over the past eleven years. 

In brief: Zanne and I moved to Florida! Whoop! We love it. The hot, steamy weather is made for me! My knees are relatively happy. 

Only problem we have had is finding a church we can work with--no luck so far. The churches all seem to favor sermons from the pulpit instead of Bible teaching. We gave it the good old college try, but we both find it so frustrating and unfulfilling to listen to a pastor ranting, vice solid Bible teaching using exegesis and solid hermeneutics. For now, we are resorting to watching FBC online on Sundays. Hoping we can eventually find a fellowship we can work with.

We have five cats: Bella, Henry, Halle Berry, Little Man, and Boo-Boo. 

Andris and Leila (our adopted Lats) also moved here and both are now married. The four of them (including Amanda and Mike) bought a house and live together in it. They are doing an amazing job fixing it up, and they will eventually flip it. 

I'm about 2.5 years from retirement and looking forward to it. Still working remotely for the Lab. 

Currently wargaming "The White Tribe"--a solo game about the political course of Rhodesia, 1966-1980. Also have Labyrinth on another table, and "The Tigers are Burning" (Soviets vs. Germans in Ukraine, 1943-44) on the other. 

Acts 15

Acts 15 is about the earliest controversy in the church: the question of how to handle Gentile believers. What strikes me about this chapter is the response of the apostles and elders in Jerusalem, especially James.

The story is that in the great city of Antioch, the (Gentile) church is growing fast. Some Judaizers from Jerusalem arrive and begin to tell everyone that in order to be saved, the believers must be circumcized and subject themselves to the Law of Moses. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the church send Paul and Barnabus to Jerusalem to consult with the apostles and elders. When they arrive there is a great debate, and the Judaizers have a chance to put forth their theory. (They are associated with the Pharisee party.) After they get their hearing, the apostles retire and consult among themselves. Peter stands up and does a great job defending the truth.

But then James takes the podium. This is the part I have trouble with. He seems to be searching for a compromise and gives what comes across as a half-hearted response. We will not force circumcision on the Gentiles, but we will tell them to avoid meat offered to idols, blood, strangled meat, and sexual immorality. Having formed a consensus around this platform, they fire off a letter to Antioch and send it with two prophets, Judas and Silas.

The letter is peculiar to me, because it seems dry and uninspiring. It doesn't say anything about "grace and peace". It mentions Christ once. It doesn't celebrate the growth of the church in Antioch. It simply says that we will lay no greater burden on you than these things--and then lists the James compromise. The letter claims that the Holy Spirit was part of this decision making.

Obviously (from a reading of the rest of the NT), this proclamation did not solve the problem. The Judaizers continued to plague the churches in Asia and Europe. Not only that, but the issue of meat offered to idols reared its ugly head again, and Paul had to deal with it.

So the question I'm left with is this: does Acts 15 reflect what God really wanted the apostles to do? Is it possible that this chapter instead documents a serious failure on the part of the Jerusalem leadership, and that as a result God decides to commission Paul to write his epistles and set the proper tone for the church?

Must meditate on this.

Blood and Bridges

Played the new game "Blood and Bridges", part of the World at War series by Lock 'n Load. It's set in 1985 and simulates a Soviet invasion of Western Europe. This particular game focuses on the Brits and West Germans. I solitaired the first scenario, in which West German and Soviets become intermixed while each side seeks to rejoin their main lines. The game began well for the Soviets as the German mechanized infantry battalion moved into firing positions on top of a hill overlooking the Soviet avenue of approach. Soviet T80s shot the hell out of the infantry. Meanwhile, Soviet BRDM-ATs beat up some of the German Panzers maneuvering against them in the south. But as the game progressed, the Germans--especially the infantry firing MILANs--started to tear up the Soviets that were trying to advance off the map. When the HINDs came in, the German Redeyes killed one immediately. The other eventually maneuvered against the Redeye position and killed it. By the end of the game, however, the Germans had attrited the Soviets pretty badly and advanced a couple of units off the board, thus winning.

I like the game system. It borders on "too simple", as the combat system is very dicey. But it plays fast and solitaires well. I will continue to play it.

Doctrine and Dissensions

Our church decided to spend the summer doing a "Doctrine and Dissensions" seminar. The idea was to highlight some of the major debates within Chrisitianity--to give both sides of the major arguments. When I first heard of the idea, I was all for it.

In retrospect, I think this was an ill-advised idea. (Although I firmly believe our elders and pastors were truly seeking God's will in this.) The problem is that the assumption was that the audience for these classes would be believers who were well-educated in the faith, able to think about the subject matter critically while maintaining their loyalty to the truth of the Bible.

The reality is that most of the audience is NOT well educated in the faith. At least not educated enough. Our job as a church is to teach and make disciples, not encourage critical thought. I'm a big advocate of critical thought, but Scripture demands a vital balance between critical thought and humility toward the teaching of God's Word.

The first class was about politics. It was poorly taught, boring, and avoided the key issues. I appreciate my fellow believer's motivations, but his teaching style does not reflect the authority of the Word of God. Most of the students in the class felt that we didn't get to the issues.

The second class (that I didn't attend) was to share the viewpoint of some kook who doesn't believe in eternal condemnation. Ummm...read your Bible. Nuff said. Week wasted.

The following two weeks were about creation. The first viewpoint was the "young earth" viewpoint that insists that the world is about six thousand years old. The second viewpoint was the "old earth" position that posits a much older earth based on relativity of time. These classes were interesting. I just wish we could have had more direct debate.

Then came Mike Duffy's class. Mike did a great service to our Lord. He was organized, articulate, passionate, interesting, and on point. He did a superb job representing the premillennial viewpoint of prophecy.

This week, the church allowed a young gentleman to present the partial preterist viewpoint. I appreciate the sentiment, but this was a total waste of time. The instructor was unprepared, ill-organized, and unconvincing.

What upsets me is that the church elected to sponsor correct teaching to appear next to grossly incorrect teaching. Our job is to teach and make disciples. Instead, I feel we are suggesting to our students that "I'm okay, you're okay." In other words, that truth is relative, or unimportant. Neither is true.

I'm frustrated.

Summer, 2011

It seems beyond belief, but Zanne and I have FINALLY sold the property! Yes, the closing is done. The money has been wired. The adventure is concluded. We are so grateful to God. A five year sojourn that feels like a hundred years is over. Woot!

We have budgeted carefully and prayed and considered various scenarios and courses of action. In the end, we have decided to spend part of the proceeds on making our home into what we envisioned some years ago when it was first being framed. We are: (1) building a library; (2) putting on the decks; (3) installing an in-ground pool; and (4) finishing the basement. If possible, we will put hardwood flooring in the family room, and we are also furnishing the morning room. When it is all done (July?) we will have a substantially different home and will have still used a good part of the proceeds on savings and managing our mortgage.

Our prayer is that God will use our home as a base for evangelism and blessing for our many Christian friends. Nothing in this world will last...it will all burn some day. We don't want to place our affections upon anything in the devil's world. So we are trusting that God will bless our investments and make use of our beautiful home while it lasts.

Joe is in Marine Corps basic training at Paris Island, SC. We have received one letter so far and have sent him (as requested) 18 days supply of protein bars. I can only imagine that our Joe will come back a huge, strapping Marine that can lift all of us with one arm! I am so proud of my youngest son (well, all of my kids!), and we are looking forward to seeing him graduate this great adventure in August!

Rachel has been staying with us, and she is a great cook. We had incredible chicken fajitas tonight.

Kadey is headed to Costa Rica soon, and she's very excited.

Eva Gabor gave birth to quadruplets--named Mitch, Stanley, Blanche, and Stella. Her sister Zsa Zsa is due on Monday.

All is well. I took a week of leave and worked my buns off cleaning up and organizing the garage and took three truck loads of junk to the dump. Back to work tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I'm concluding a nine week seminar course on Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel next Sunday. I don't especially like teaching seminar courses, because there is too much material and too little time. But any opportunity to teach Bible class is welcome.